Photographer and Actor Cris Alexander Dies at 92

BY Michelle Garcia

March 26 2012 5:13 PM ET

Gay actor and photographer Cris Alexander died earlier this month at age 92, just two weeks after this husband, dancer Shaun O'Brien, passed away at the age of 86.

Alexander left Tulsa, Okla., in 1938 with classmate Tony Randall to head to New York City. He appeared in the Broadway hit On The Town in 1944 but later switched his focus to photography, producing portraits of celebrities including Martha Graham and Vivien Leigh, The New York Times reports.

Alexander was with O'Brien for 60 years before they wed last year after New York State enacted marriage equality. O'Brien died February 23, and Alexander died March 7.

“If there is a cause of death, it’s a broken heart,” Alexander's friend Jane Klain said to the Times. “It’s as simple as that.”